Through the years, an number of internal combustion engines have been conceived which harness the power supplied by the rapid expansion of burning hydrocarbon fuels. These engines have taken several forms. However, to date the most pervasive has been the reciprocating or piston engine. While piston engines have provided substantial power and sophistication, they are subject to an inherent limitation in that the power harnessing pistons travel in a reciprocating manner within a linear combustion chamber. As a result, such engines are subject to substantial wear and limited in their speed of revolution.
An alternate form of internal combustion engine which has not enjoyed the popularity of piston engines is found in the rotary engine. Rotary engines promise a substantial improvement once the difficulties associated therewith have been overcome in that the pistons travel rotationally and therefore are not subjected to the extreme acceleration and deceleration forces of a reciprocating engine. Within a variety of rotary engines which have been conceived, one of the most promising is that found in rotary engines in which pairs of pistons usually situated on opposite sides of a rotating member are mechanically coupled in a manner in which the distance between the oppositely paired piston sets is varied as their relative rotational velocities change. Such engines utilize the changing spacing between piston sets to provide the internal combustion engine functions of intake compression, power and exhaust.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,183,898 issued to Sandone sets forth ROTARY ENGINE in which a pair of rotary members each support a pair of opposed pistons. A surrounding case provides an annular closed volume accessible through intake and exhaust ports and provided with an ignition port. As the rotatable members rotate, slotted grooves within the rotatable members cooperate with captive ball elements in a power take-off shaft to couple power the rotating pistons.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,458,950 issued to Poirmeur set forth an EXPLOSION ROTATING ENGINE which is similar in concept to the Sandone engine described above but which utilizes a plurality of grooves and elongated coupling members having pegs which travel within the slotted grooves. The relative spacing between pistons is controlled by the contours of the grooves.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,998 issued to Mallinckrodt sets forth a ROTARY ENGINE in which several rotating systems having alternating pistons interchange angular momentums during certain reverse locking events. Expansion events between the pistons cause the systems to overrun one another and supply power to a shaft through the power integration means.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,092,254 issued to Horner sets forth a ROTARY COMBUSTION ENGINE in which a pair of rotors are rotatably supported within an annular combustion chamber. Each rotatable member supports a quartet of disk-shaped pistons fitted to the annular combustion chamber. The relative distance between the piston sets is used to provide the operative strokes for internal combustion engine operation. A slotted coupling and pin arrangement is used to couple power from the rotating members to the power take-off shaft.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,299,865 issued to Moyer sets forth a ROTARY COMBUSTION ENGINE similar to the above-described rotary engines in which a pair of cam plates carrying cam grooves and axially spaced with respect to the central casting define radial guide slots engaged by cam followers. A power take-off shaft fixed to the rotatable cam plates extends outwardly along the central casting axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,939 issued to McIntosh sets forth a ROTARY ENGINE WITH IMPROVED SEAL AND TIMING MECHANISM PROVIDING LINEAR ACCELERATION BETWEEN PISTONS DURING THE POWER STROKE in which a mechanism is operative to transfer power from the rotary engine pistons to a drive shaft and also provide for relative movement between pistons according to a predetermined function. The mechanism includes a pair of rotating slotted members cooperating with a plurality of planetary gears moving in an engaging fashion within the interior of an internal gear track. Pins extend from the rotating planetary gears to the slots within the rotating members which are coupled to the pistons.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have improved such rotary engines to some extent, they have as yet failed to provide a simple, direct and reliable mechanism for coupling power within such rotary engines. There remains, therefore, a need in the art for an improved power coupling mechanism for rotary engines.